PUC to Consider Plans for 818 Area Code Split

LOS ANGELES —  State utilities regulators on Thursday are expected to hear three area code relief backup plans in case number-conservation measures fail to keep pace with demand for new numbers in the San Fernando Valley.

The state Public Utilities Commission will consider the proposals at its regular monthly meeting at 10 a.m. at the Junipero Serra State Building in downtown Los Angeles.

All three proposals are last-resort options should the PUC’s number-conservation program fail to alleviate the need for an area code split or overlay in the 818 region.

Regulators, consumer advocates and industry leaders say they do not know how effective the conservation measures will be or how long existing area codes will remain intact.

Still, PUC officials are moving ahead with several complex plans--including number rationing and forcing phone companies to return unused numbers--to preserve area codes statewide.

On Thursday, the five-member panel is expected to hear a proposal by Commissioner Joel Z. Hyatt to split the 818 area after all number conservation measures are exhausted. The north and east Valley would keep 818, while an area from Agoura Hills to Van Nuys would get a new area code.

A rival plan proposed by Commissioner Josiah Neeper proposes an overlay. Under that plan, all new numbers in the 818 area would get a new, as yet undetermined area code, while existing numbers keep the old one. But callers would have to dial the area code and phone number, even for local calls.

A third proposal by Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pulsifer would also implement the split, but only after a state-conducted number-utilization study.

In a letter to the PUC released late Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Antonio R. Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) urged the commissioners to support the Hyatt proposal.